


Better

by Alcyone



Category: Perfect Match (Visual Novel)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-30
Updated: 2018-11-30
Packaged: 2019-09-02 00:24:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,361
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16775926
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alcyone/pseuds/Alcyone
Summary: A long night.





	Better

Muffled shouts and the sound of something breaking woke him.

One arm thrown over Kai’s still sleeping form, Damien sat up. The sounds continued, filtering through the walls of his apartment. Brow furrowed, he slipped from the bed.

Kai stirred restlessly before her eyes blinked open.

“What is that?”

“Sounds like the neighbors.”

Damien pulled his jeans on. He could not immediately spot his shirt and abandoned it.

“Stay here. I’ll check it out,” he told her as she sat up. He tossed his phone at her. “Call the cops.”

In the hall, he discovered the sound of the commotion. A man—mid-to-late twenties, Damien estimated—was yelling abuse at a closed door. When whoever was inside refused to open it, he slammed his fist against the wood before kicking it.

“Hey, buddy! What the hell are you doing?”

The man lurched around. His face was flushed.

“Stay out of this.” His words came out slurred. “S’not your business.”

“Yeah,” Damien answered with a grim smile, “you made it mine when you decided to wake up half the building. How about you step away from the door?”

It wasn’t a request. By the sudden deepening of his scowl, Damien guessed the man understood him perfectly.

“Fuck off.”

There was an unmistakable bite of hard liquor in the air. Up close, he could see the man was breathing hard and his eyes were blown. Alcohol and some kind of stimulant. Wonderful combination.

There was no rationality to appeal to here so Damien opted for blunt command.

“Move away from the door. I won’t tell you again.”

“Who the fuck do you think you are?”

Damien read the intention telegraphed in the heavy step toward him. Ducking under the clumsy swing, he smashed his fist into the man’s cheek. He dropped like a ton of bricks.

“Holy _shit,_ ” a voice enthused.

Damien’s head snapped up. A girl at most a couple years older than Lucilla was leaning out her door. She held her phone out in front of her like a shield, laughing as she did.

“ _One punch!_ ”

Her mother was behind her, trying to drag her back inside.

“What did I tell you about opening this door!”

“One punch, mom! One punch and he knocked that asshole _flat!_ ”

The asshole in question was stirring faintly. Damien knelt by him, shoving him onto his side with less care than another person would have earned. He was still breathing. Grabbing both his wrists behind his back in one hand, Damien looked around.

“Does anyone have—”

Kai was beside him, wearing his henley. She held out a pair of handcuffs.

“Thought these might be helpful.”

“Are you a cop?” the girl’s mother asked. The girl had a look on her face like she guessed something her mother didn’t.

“Used to be,” Damien answered honestly. “I’m putting him under citizen’s arrest until the police get here.”

He and Kai met each other’s eyes and quickly looked away from each other. Behind her back, she tugged the sleeves of the henley further down her wrists.

Another door opened. A redheaded kid poked his head out.

“Did someone call the cops?”

“I did,” answered Kai.

“I did too!” the girl added.

“Ah, shit.” He slammed the door behind him.

While Damien handcuffed the man, Kai stepped behind him, lightly touching his shoulder as she did so. He watched her walk to the door the man had been assaulting and knock lightly on it.

“Are you okay?” she called.

More neighbors began to trickle into the hall, including a couple from the floor above them who had been the first to call 911. Before the police arrived, Kai knelt next to Damien, now wearing yoga pants to go with his shirt, and offering him a T-shirt.

“Here.”

While he was pulling it on, the girl let out a disappointed, “Aww.” He pulled his head through in time to see the girl wilt under the look on her mother’s face.

The victim was another kid. Looked barely twenty. Couldn’t stop shaking. Damien, by contrast, was almost frustrated with the procedure. He understood the why, but he was also developing a new appreciation for every person who had tolerated his questioning. Luckily for him, he had eyewitness testimony as well as video proof on his side. The girl was practically vibrating with all the attention and wouldn’t stop regaling anyone who listened about the “One punch!”

He was still asked to give his statement at the station.

“I’m coming with you,” Kai insisted and then pinched him when he told her to stay.

It was almost hour later when he was finished. He shook hands with a couple of the officers on-duty that he was familiar with and walked into the waiting room to find Kai fast asleep on one of the hard plastic chairs, her sweater bundled under her head like a pillow, her feet pulled up on the seat. He knelt by her side and gently shook her awake.

She startled awake, eyes wide, before she found him and her features relaxed. Her hand drifted to his face. Damien kissed the base of her palm.

“We can go. Come on.”

Kai stretched with a yawn. She took his hand and leaned her head against his shoulder as they walked.

“How’s our boring, mundane life working for you?”

Damien laughed.

It was so late by the time they left the station that it was technically early. As they neared the corner, Kai tugged on his arm.

“Let’s get something to eat,” she said, nodding to an open diner.

“I thought you were ready to murder whatever came between you and sleep.”

“Please. We’re going to have all day to sleep. It’s not as if either of us is showing up to work.”

They sat by the windows, two huge steaming cups of coffee in front of them. Soon, breakfast was laid before them: a stack of pancakes and another of waffles; a mountain of scrambled eggs; a pile of bacon; sausage links; muffins; toast.

Damien could only shake his head.

“What?” Kai asked him while she was spreading jam over her toast.

“Sometimes I’m reminded you and Nadia are _definitely_ related.”

She wrinkled her nose at him.

They ate in a comfortable silence. After they were finished, he took her hand across the table. While he checked the news on his phone, he stroked her knuckles.

Suddenly, he heard Kai choke. She almost dropped her mug as she broke laughing.

“You’re going viral!”

For a moment, the word meant to nothing to him. “What?”

“Your neighbor uploaded the video.” She pushed her phone across the table at him where a very familiar looking scene was playing. “Look!”

Damien stared at the screen, mouth dropping open. Then he took notice of the account that had both liked and retweeted the original tweet.

“Did you retweet this?”

“Yep!” she declared proudly. “I had to inform the internet that my boyfriend is the One Punch guy. Sent it to Nadia too. She’ll be so mad when she wakes up that she missed all this.”

Damien groaned. “Really? That’s the name they’ve come up with?”

“Well, One-Punch Man was taken. Besides, I don’t know what you’re complaining about. If I were you, I’d put that on my CV.”

He threw a remnant from his muffin at her and she retaliated with what was left of her hash browns.

They took the train back. Kai dozed against his shoulder. He ended up carrying her into his apartment building. In his room, he laid her in the bed, taking off her shoes and sweater, before pulling the covers around her shoulders. She immediately turned toward his side of the bed, one arm flung out as if looking for him. It brought a goofy smile to his face. Bending over, he kissed her hair.

“I’ll be right back,” he whispered against her temple.

In the hall, he knocked lightly on the door. The face that answered looked even younger in the daylight and no less frightened. Damien smiled.

“I’m sorry to bother you. We met last night, sort of, and I wanted to see how you’re doing.”


End file.
